Voyage of the Turtle

In Pursuit of the Earth’s Last Dinosaur

Voyage of the Turtle is a global journey on oceans and coasts in pursuit of Earth’s last warm-blooded monster reptile. The Leatherback is the closest thing we have to a last-living dinosaur. It’s a turtle that can weigh over a ton.

Throughout our global explorations from tropical New Guinea jungle beaches to chilly waters off Newfoundland, we come face-to-face with animals, villagers, and researchers living and working at extremes. We meet poachers, fishermen, and native people who still worship the Leatherback Turtle.

We learn how sea turtles migrate thousands of miles from feeding to breeding areas, use ocean currents, orient to Earth’s magnetic field, and how the Leatherback, alone among reptiles, can warm its body and achieve diving depths approaching a mile, deeper than any other air-breathing animal in the world.

And in Nova Scotia we meet old-time fishermen who, refreshingly, insist there were never as many of the giant turtles as swim there today. This ancient mariner who has seen both the fall of dinosaurs and the dawn of humankind, this master-navigator now, needs us—the only creature who ever posed its species a mortal threat—to chart a path to its future.

Book Reviews:

An impassioned account… Safina’s eloquent book is a battle cry in the struggle for the survival."

— Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Voyage of the Turtle

Thrums with fascination."

— New York Times Book Review on Voyage of the Turtle

Magnificent… a book that makes the sea air palpable, fills the nostrils and brings us face-to-face with an ancient, tenacious animal. A joyful, hopeful book that at the same time, doesn’t let us off the hook."

— Los Angeles Times on Voyage of the Turtle

Carl Safina is like some extraordinary astronaut who goes into space and comes back with fantastic tales of other planets and the creatures who inhabit them. Except that the marvelous planet is our own."